The Alter of Freedom
by Mystic25
Summary: Tinga's point-of-view as she was getting ready to run for Canada with Zack at the end of the "Kidz are Aiight"


TITLE: "The Alter of Freedom"  
  
AUTHOR: Mystic25  
  
EMAIL: little_girl_island34@hotmail.com  
  
SUMMARY: Tinga's point-of-view as she was getting ready to run for Canada with Zack at the end of the "Kidz are Aiight"  
  
RATING: PG, for language.  
  
SPOILERS: "The Kidz Are Aiight" obviously.  
  
DISCLAIMER: Cameron, Tinga, Max and Logan are yours. Zack is mine. That's just how it is.  
  
A/N: The title is taken from a monument my family and I visited when my dad was still active duty in the Air Force. It was either in Hawaii or Washington D.C. I can't remember. But it said: "For those that were willing to lay so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom." You'll get it after you read the fic.  
  
A/N # 2: I didn't use the script for reference so the wording isn't exact. Plus I thought recalling it from memory would help make it more my own then just pulling out lines from a script like a mechanical robot.  
  
*****   
  
"What about you?" I ask my sister a rhetorical question in my opinion. Why would she stay here? She wasn't crazy. But she wasn't making a move to get in the backseat. Not that I blame her, I've horked up things that looked better then this rusty Alantra.  
  
"She's staying here," Zack's answered the question I directed at Max, and it wasn't the answer I expected. Was he putting me on? Why would Maxie be so stupid as to stay here in now blatant view of Lydecker's forces? We all had the same training banged into our skulls, and I for one have absolutely no qualms whatsoever about getting the hell outta here with Zack before Deck sees to it that I loose my U.S citizenship in favor of becoming a resident of Manticore. It surprised the piss outta me to hear Zack inform me that Max chose a different direction then the one that lead to wherever the hell this Hyundai P.O.S can take us.  
  
I turned to face Zack so fast that my braids slapped against my jacket like a leather whip. Sometimes I regret letting my hair grow so damn long. "Lydecker-" I say, shocked to think that my baby sister would stay in such dangerous territory and risk exposure or possibly even death, and for an instant I think Zack's screwing with me. But his expression is completely void of any BS, and now was not the time I wanted him to experience one of his firsts.   
  
"I said let it go," Zack growled at me, his voice in that low timbre that made me think of a growling wolf crouched in an attack stance. This was something, that when I was young, I would pretend to be real, to starve off boredom during long lectures on how we were the Alpha class in a world of filthy corrupters.  
  
Zack's eyes have the same look on them that I remembered when he was just a fresh in the balls teenager. That domineering gaze that said he was better then every great person combined plus three others no one knew existed. He makes a big show of moving his hand down towards the key in the ignition of the car we just acquired, or rather we'd stolen. He is getting ready to turn on the motor, doing it incredibly slow, like a buxom blonde tramp giving head to a rich suit with huge bulge in some cheap porno film. If he'd a been the wolf I pretended he was when I was eleven, he would be dominantly pissing in front of me right now.  
  
Well the male dominance festival is over Zack, I don't enjoy seeing my big brother whip it out in front of me, not even symbolically. I slam my hand down hard on the crap colored upholstery of the car, stomping my right foot simultaneously, and shoot a glare that would make Lydecker himself proud of my prowess.   
  
I know what Zack was thinking. For whatever reason, Maxie had decided to stay here despite all the obvious risks. Her actions had just put a machete to Zack's nuts, and sliced at them in slow, deliberate movements. He was still back at Manticore, the watchdog looking out for his charges, protecting us because he felt responsible for our lives, our fates. Maxie asserting her independence on this fly by your ass moment wasn't sitting well with our brother the Pit Bull.  
  
When I turn back to Max I see that she knows already of now our grown brothers norms. I think she and I have had the same kind of experiences in contact with Zack - non emotional moments where he would drop by to tell us not to fuck up our lives before WE would tell him to fuck off and leave US to our lives - and this made us learn how to gauge his emotions in a quick amount of time, because that was how long he hung around. Maybe I missed the gun, maybe Zack grew out of his 'soldier in enemy territory' attitude, but if I believed that I'd also have to believe that all our Manticore training was taught to make us honorary Eagle Scouts.   
  
I know better, the packaging may have aged well but the contents inside were still the same.   
  
Zack would never admit that he wants Maxie to come with us because he wants to make sure she's protected from Lydecker, he's too much of a hard ass for that. He'll sit there and let her - in his mindset - screw up her survival chances. That's just the kind of person he is, and in a way so am I. I'm not a girl who gushes over and expresses her emotions. I don't do tender scenes, or crying, and Kodak Moments can kiss my genetically tanked up ass. I'm a Manticore soldier, not the spokeswoman for Hallmark.  
  
Both of us care for Maxie, but right now I'm the only one with enough balls to admit it cause I don't want to leave without so much as saying one fucking word to her. When I turn back to her, I can't help but look in her eyes. And in them I see the girl I grew up with at Manticore, that I sat beside when Ben made his shadows on the wall, and who I hid with in the closet when she had seizures so an op wouldn't drag her off to solitary confinement. But the rest of her - damn, long curly hair, flawless tan skin, toned sleek body. She grew up, and she's so damn beautiful. What the hell happened to my baby sister? I'm older too, I know. I know the way men look at me. Obviously the same way they look at Maxie, like they want to live out their entire ultimate fantasies all over our bodies. Same way the man behind Max is looking at her now, though it's a bit more muted then a pure animal filled sexual humping desire. I know now that's why she stayed, for him, thought I don't know how deep the chord between them runs. Were they friends? Lovers? Man and wife? Zack knows though, he's kicking the guy's ass in his mind right now, so their relationship must be something deep.   
  
I hear myself say the words: "Take care of yourself baby sister."   
  
"You too." It was the first thing Maxie said to me all night. Her voice is just a beautiful as her outside suggests, a sensual tone, smooth as silk, but also dark, commanding, the latter because it was a means of survival where we came from. I embrace her when she offers but it was cut short because of the reality of our situation.  
  
The expression in her eyes are the same as mine; she doesn't want me to leave. But that's the nature of our life, constantly on the run from the enemy that never leaves us the hell alone, who can morph into anyone, be anywhere. This makes attachment very difficult; I mean who would love someone who won't even be there in the morning? But I'm glad Maxie found someone, it makes our lives all that more worth fighting to keep. Zack should jump on that idea before he gets himself killed with his bonehead ideologies.  
  
Zack starts the engine for real this time, and the old shitty car proves to us she still has some mileage left in her by coming alive, but just barely. Hopefully she won't break down before we reach the Promise Land of maple syrup and hockey teams. I watch Maxie's eyes as we pull off the impound lot, and take a mental snapshot of what she looks like so I can find her again. She's my sister and that's that, so kiss my ass Zack.   
  
We make it out to the main road, which is completely deserted except for one lone tanker truck with a driver behind the wheel drunk of his ass on a bottle of five-dollar whiskey gripped in one hand.  
  
Zack watches the man outside his window for a moment, silently mocking his rubish behavior. He then turns to me and is about to say something reprimanding. How I shouldnt have given into to Max's 'phony sentimentality' over that 'civilian man', how I should have dragged her with us to Canada, and how I completely failed in my mission. How he had sacrified himself for us and I wasn't getting my head in the game because I didn't convince Max to do the same.  
  
Zack keeps his eyes on the road, but his voice reaches my ears: "Tinga-"  
  
"Shut the hell up and drive Zack." I hiss.  
  
*****  
  
END  
  
Hopefully I did Tinga justice. I was watching the "The Kids Are Aiight" and that look Tinga gave Zack when he was about to drive off gave me the inspiration for this piece. I didn't want Tinga to be all sad and sentimental cause that's not how I think she is, all the X5's share a very strong bond, but they don't openly show it. So no tears and hand holds here.  
  
I'm working on my next chapters of "Less then Human" and "Choices" I just wanted to post another stand alone piece since I haven't don't one in a while.  
  
R/R please  
  
Peace  
  
Mystic 


End file.
